Daily Times

Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has sought the support of media to make Pakistan a country where everyone has freedom of speech.

“We want to make a Pakistan where everyone is given liberty to speak and write. We want collaboration between all the democratic forces including journalists, civil society and bar associations,” he said while speaking at a ‘Meet the Press’ seminar arranged at the Lahore Press Club. “This government launched an attack on media right after taking the reins and blocked the advertisements besides imposing severe censorship,” he said, adding that worst-ever attacks are being launched against the democracy and press in today’s Pakistan.

Lauding the services rendered by media, Bilawal said that democracy is alive in the country due to the blood of media persons as they have faced the worst dictatorships with bravery. He termed the journalists as ‘labourers of pen’ and said that they are standing firm with the democracy in the same way as PPP struggled for it. “Be it the dictatorship of Ayub Khan or Zia ul Haq, both the PPP and journalists struggled together and therefore I am here amongst you,” he said.

“There is worst kind of censorship and suffocation imposed by the government for media these days and it also wants the same atmosphere in the parliament,” Bilawal said. According to the PPP chairman, no one is ready to accept that Nawaz Sharif is in jail or in London due to the corruption charges as everyone knows that a sheer political victimization is behind this. “Even the deceased brother of Syed Khurseed Shah has got notice from NAB … and character assassination of Raja Pervaiz Ashraf is also on the record,” he said.

The PPP chairman said Benazir Bhutto was exonerated in all the cases by the courts but unfortunately she wasn’t alive to get that good news. The judgment in the case of judicial murder of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was supposed to be announced in just half an hour but the case is still pending, he said. “Our judicial institutions should remain the institutions meant to provide justice to the people and they should not become the institutions to build new dams,” he said, in a reference to former chief justice Mian Saqib Nisar.

Speaking on the recently signed peace agreement between US and Afghan Taliban, Bilawal hoped that the agreement is for peace in Afghanistan and not for re-election of Trump. “We were told to ‘do more’ against Afghan Taliban and Haqqanis were also not good then … but now Haqqani is writing columns in New York Times,” he said, while showing reservations over the agreement. “Imran Khan doesn’t know anything about the agreement and he shouldn’t be credited for this deal,” he added.

“The countries are run according to the wishes of the people and not by signals from the ‘umpire’,” he said, and added that PPP introduced several projects for the welfare of people. “I need your support in this long journey as it is not matter of a day or two to make Pakistan a stronger country,” he said.

Former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Qamar Zaman Kaira and Ch Manzoor were also present on the occasion.